When a politician asks a NASA scientist if there used to be an ancient civilization on Mars, it's bound to make headlines. And that's just what happened on July 18th, when US Congressman and House Representative Dana Rohrabacher of California posed a pondering question to Ken Farley, one of the planetary scientists speaking at a hearing about science, space, and technology: "Is it possible that there was a civilization on Mars thousands of years ago?"

As silly as this question seems, it's actually quite reasonable, considering the subject matter at hand - water on Mars! Although the Mars Rover hasn't captured any compelling evidence of current life on Mars, NASA has repeatedly presented evidence to the public over the years that there used to be water (the key ingredient for life!) on Mars, and there could be water there today. Considering that humans evolved rather quickly in the grand cosmic scheme of things, is it really that hard to believe that an intelligent society of humanoids or aliens could have prospered on Mars a long time ago?

Not to mention... there was that time the CIA tired to remote view Mars... and possibly even succeeded at viewing intelligent Martians living there in the distant past. Yes, really. The "Stargate Project" was the code name given to the CIA's secret "remote viewing" program, which lasted from the 1970s to the 90s. In one experiment, a student of the program apparently astral projected to Mars and saw unnatural structures, and communicated with thin, tall beings!

If NASA has painted such a clear picture of Mars, then why did the government pay the CIA to remote view the planet?

Meanwhile, NASA seems quietly confident that they will discover ET life in the near future, stating that life in the universe could be ubiquitous, and also stating that they won't necessarily have to send boots on the ground to discover it, but satellites and robots like the Mars Rover. (Or NASA can just psychically view the red planet, perhaps.)

The planetary scientist's answer to the Rep. Rohrabacher was fairly predictable and uninspired: "I would say that is extremely unlikely."

No offense to NASA as an institution, but many UFO researchers may find this specific response to be pretty preposterous. We are still learning about new human ancestors and civilizations on Planet Earth; it would seem eccentrically arrogant to presume anything about the ancient history of a planet we've only recently been studying up close.

What do you think about this story? Does it help or hurt UFO and Alien Disclosure? Do you think we will see more stories like these over the coming months? Share your theories on this and more in the comments below, or join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also subscribe onYouTube.